The beneficial effects of increased dietary intake of long chain omega-3 fatty acids in humans has been well documented, which includes the reduction of cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases (i.e. arthritis and atherosclerosis), reduction of depression, increasing length of gestation in the third trimester, and inhibiting tumor growth. Several heterotrophic marine microorganisms have been found to produce high levels of these important essential fatty acids, including that of genus Crypthecodinium (Jiang and Chen, Process Biochemistry 35 (2000) 1205–1209; Jiang and Chen, Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, (1999) Vol. 23, 508–513; Vazhappilly and Chen, Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society, (1998) Vol. 75, No. 3 p 393–397; Kyle, U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,957; U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,591; U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,938; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,983).
Crypthecodinium cohnii is one of the most desirable organisms to utilize for the production of DHA (C22:6n-3), one of the most important long chain omega-3 fatty acids. C. cohnii is advantageous because DHA is the only polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) produced by this organism in appreciable quantities. Other organisms produce two or more polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in their lipids, and the complexity of their lipid profile can limit the use of their oils in some food and pharmaceutical applications (e.g. due to the presence of other undesirable PUFAs in the oil or due to ratios of the different PUFAs falling out of the desirable range for the specific application). In the marine environment, Crypthecodinium cohnii is usually found in full salinity seawater and, as such, is adapted to growth in an environment with a high chloride concentration. In fact, most cultures in published research on C. cohnii show that the growth and DHA production does best at salinities greater than about 20% of seawater (Jiang and Chen). The chloride ion concentration equivalent to 20% seawater is about 3870 ppm chloride ion or 3.87 g/l chloride ion. (Home 1969).
Tuttle and Loeblich (1975) developed an optimal growth medium for C. cohnii. The disclosed medium contained a sodium chloride concentration of 342 millimolar (mM). The equivalent grams per liter of sodium ion and chloride ion in a 342 mM sodium chloride solution are 7.86 g/L sodium ion and 12.12 g/L of chloride ion.
Beach & Holz (1973) reported that when culturing C. cohnii over a range of NaCl concentrations (0.3%, 1.8% and 5.0% (1.82 g/l, 10.9 g/l and 30.3 g/l chloride ion, respectively)) lipid yield (expressed as mg per 109 cells) declined as NaCl concentrations decreased. Lipid yield at 0.3% NaCl was approximately one third of that at 5.0% NaCl.
More recently, Jiang and Chen (1999) determined the effects of salinity on cell growth and DHA content with three strains of Crypthecodinium cohnii and found in all cases that the optimum growth rates for cells and DHA yields were between 5 g/L and 9 g/L sodium chloride, which corresponds to 3.0 and 5.5 g/L chloride ion, respectively.
The natural chloride concentration of seawater (19,353 ppm, or 19.35 g/l chloride ion) (Horne 1969, page 151) promotes corrosion in stainless steel fermentors. For example, of the two common grades of stainless steel used in manufacturing fermentors, 304-stainless steel is susceptible to corrosion when the chloride level exceeds 300 ppm (0.3 g/l chloride ion), and 316-stainless steel is susceptible to corrosion when the chloride level exceeds 1000 ppm (1 g/l chloride ion). Other grades of stainless steel exist that are more resistant to chloride corrosion, but they are extremely expensive and generally only used in fermentation equipment employed for the production of very expensive compounds.
Although it may be predicted that minimizing corrosion of stainless steel fermentors may be achieved by lowering chloride concentrations in the culture medium, in practice this is not an easy task. Marine microalgae, which are derived from the sea, generally require a certain amount of chloride ion, preferably as sodium chloride, to maintain growth and lipid production when grown in culture.
However, attempts to date to grow marine microalgae at low chloride concentrations while maintaining levels of production of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids such as DHA have been unsuccessful. Jiang and Chen (1999) were unable to demonstrate significant DHA yields at NaCl levels less than 5 g/L, corresponding to a chloride level of about 3033 ppm or 3 g/L.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,410,281, issued Jun. 25, 2002, to Barclay, provides a method for growing euryhaline organisms such as Thraustochytrium sp. and Schizochytrium sp. in low chloride media by substituting non-chloride sodium salts to replace the sodium lost when lowering sodium chloride levels.
There exists a need for a process which would enable the production of a high yield of DHA from Crypthecodinium cohnii, while inhibiting or preventing corrosion in the most commercially desirable production vessels, stainless steel culture fermentors. This process would have to enable effective growth of the microorganism in a medium containing preferably less than 300 ppm chloride. Three hundred ppm chloride represents a level 10–18 times lower than the lowest chloride levels demonstrated by Jiang & Chen (1999) to be the best for the production of strains of Crypthecodinium. 
Another desirable characteristic of microbial fermentations is the ability to grow cells at low pH (less than or equal to about pH=5.0) to inhibit the growth of bacteria in fungal fermentations. However, the literature indicates that Crypthecodinium grows best at a neutral pH (about pH 7). Tuttle and Loeblich in Phycologia Vol. 14(1) 1–8 (1975), disclose that the pH optimum for Crypthecodinium growth is 6.6, with growth being “very slow” below pH 5.5. There exists a need for strains and/or methods of growing Crypthecodinium at low pH while retaining normal growth and production of DHA.